AFTEK ORYX AND ELAND— BARINGO 79 



another view ; but though one other fairly big one and 

 three or four small bright-red pigs dashed across the 

 glade, we never again set eyes on the first monster. 



" At that time I had heard nothing of Hylochoerus, 

 the unknown species that is said to inhabit the forests of 

 Man and Laikipia, the first intimation of the existence of 

 such a creature only reaching me when my brother 

 rejoined camp a few days later. The natives assert that 

 these huge pigs are not seen beyond the mountain 

 forests. Possibly the prevailing lack of water — which 

 proved our main difficulty in exploring this region — 

 explained their being driven to lower ground in search 

 thereof." 



The drawing; of a forest-hos; overleaf has been 

 prepared by Mr. Caldwell from a female specimen 

 recently received from the Man Plateau at the British 

 Museum. Features that strike one are the unusual 

 size of the nasal disc ; the splayed-out, warthog-like 

 tusks ; the open tear-duct ; and the curious tufts of 

 white hairs on the upper-lip. The body is covered 

 with long black bristles, but the ears are not tufted as 

 in the bush-pigs. 



On the following morning I enjoyed my first sight 

 of an oryx, a lone bull moving along the lower slopes ; 

 but though I followed him for hours, far into the stony 

 hills, never got within half-a-mile. In case the fact 

 may possess scientific interest, I should record meeting 

 with a hedgehog during this stalk. I would not have 

 noticed it among long grass had it not loudly resented 

 my proximity. In size it resembled our British species, 

 and its spines were of a uniform brown. Well I knew 

 that my duty to zoology involved taking that beast 

 along ; but, in the midst of a laborious stalk, it was 

 impossible to carry that spiky specimen. Cactus and 

 barbed thorn are torment enough, without having a 

 hedgehog in one's pocket. The bushy prairies here- 

 abouts swarmed with a species of short- eared owl, very 

 dark in colour, probably Asio capensis ; from a patch 



